How to Respond to a Serious Deficiency Allegation
Providers who face a serious deficiency allegation from the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) often do not know how to defend themselves.
Without a good defense, providers can be terminated from the Food Program for seven years. This represents a substantial loss of income and hurts a provider’s ability to attract new parents.
Termination can happen when a provider fails to keep daily records of meal counts or claims a child on a day when the child is not present. In some cases, the provider’s actions are deliberate, but in many cases these mistakes are inadvertent and are caused by illness, family emergencies, computer failure, or other reasons.
I have written “A Guide for Family Child Care Providers Facing Serious Deficiency Allegations” which is designed to assist providers in defending themselves against possible termination from the CACFP.
This Guide describes the serious deficiency process and it offers practical suggestions for how to respond to a Corrective Action Plan. It also addresses how to defend against specific allegations regarding failing to keep adequate records and making false reimbursement claims. In my role as an appeal officer for several CACFP sponsors, I have seen many providers who:
Don’t know how to respond to a Corrective Action Plan
Don’t know how to effectively present evidence on their behalf or
Don’t know how to make their best case when appealing a serious deficiency termination notice.
Spread the word
It is important that providers who receive a serious deficiency notice or a Corrective Action Plan know how to defend themselves. I believe my Guide can help with this.
Therefore, I hope that family child care providers, family child care associations, Food Program sponsors, Child Care Resource and Referral agencies and other organizations that serve family child care providers will spread the word about this Guide.
Feel free to link to the Guide on your website and Facebook page, download copies, or share it in any way you want.
I hope this Guide will be useful and I welcome suggestions from anyone on how it can be improved by contacting me at tomcopeland@live.com
Tom Copeland – www.tomcopelandblog.com
Image credit: https://iowaccrr.org/blog/2019/3/7/ccrr_blog/are_you_aware/ar/2298/
